Wednesday, April 27, 2011

"The Killing" ain't that different, after all

“Not drawing conclusions, but it's a little unpleasant to realize one of our
most popular TV genres is "hot chick getting murdered,” writes Zack Handlen,
critic for the AV Club.

It’s true: For years, TV procedurals have revolved around murder. Murder – as
horrifying of an act as it is in real life – makes for pulpy fun in fiction.
It’s the stuff of farce, of dark comedy and quirky investigation.

But then came Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Murder wasn’t good enough –
it had to be really twisted stuff, it had to be rape and torture and perversion.
Many of CSI plots involved extremely strange and gross mutilations. Horror
movies abandoned the jump-out-and-scream chase scenes for lengthy scenes of the camera
languishing on slow, stomach-churning torture.

Take a look at this
synopsis for a Criminal Minds episode, which begins with an
elderly man being beaten, tortured, and wheeled to an incinerator to be
cremated. Then it starts to gets really torture-y with broken glass and
dismemberment and circular saws. Even shows that should be popcorn fun – like
Breakout Kings – insist on this sort of grisliness.

The Killing, an AMC series that follows the 13 days after a young
girl’s murder in Seattle, would be different, I hoped.

For now, most of the critical discussion about The Killing has been
centered on precisely that: how The Killing contrasted with most of the
murder-fare on television. No cheesy morbid one-liners from the detectives. One
case stretched over 13 episodes. When the pilot first aired I raved that The
Killing’s “mad genius is treating an absolutely horrifying act with its
actual real-life gravity.” Last week, Inlander critic Luke Baumgarten saw another difference when he wrote
that the lead detective was “the most boring lead TV character” he could think
of.

But the more I watched, the more surprised I was by how similar it was to the
torture-kill-squirm-investigate formula of CSI, Criminal Minds and Law and
Order: SVU.

It’s a gruesome killing: They find Rosie’s bloody shirt in the field. They
find her body drowned inside a Senator’s campaign car, her fingernails damaged
from trying to claw her way out of the trunk.

But quickly, the show cranks up the horror to make it even more
absurd. Turns, out – of course – the school has a secret sex dungeon
(essentially) in the basement of the school, where a pervert janitor watches. A
video turns up that appears to show Rosie getting raped by two masked teenage
boys in that basement.

It’s more of the same type of nightmare-for-parents that
procedural TV traffics in, exaggerated with little bearing on reality.

Similarly, the major suspects are nearly all archetypes, all unsurprising and unexplored. The
charismatic teacher who may have had affairs with students. The spoiled rich kid suspect sneers, and acts spoiled, creepy and privileged. The
brooding skater kid – whom The Killing's website identifies as “Skater Kid” –
looks exactly like a 1995 scare-ad of a skater would look like. He mostly just
glowers.

A typical procedural episode will introduce some obvious suspects, discover
evidence that clears them one by one, and then finally stumbles upon proof of
the real killer: The most recognizable guest star.

So far, The Killing has done exactly that, but across 13 hours
instead of one. Simply slowing down the formula doesn’t make it any less of a
formula.

The Killing still does do a heart-breaking job – often to the point
of being over the top – of showing what it looks like for a family to grieve
when they’ve lost their child. No moment has been as profound as Breaking
Bad’s Jesse Pinkman’s calling his dead girlfriend’s voicemail answering
message on repeat, but they have been close. But The Killing’s notes of the
family’s grief – with the father collapsing in emotional pain in a gas-station
bathroom or the mother simulating drowning herself in the bathtub – mostly feel
real. This sort of grief could have followed an accident or a sudden illness.

Which makes the contrast with the pulpy nature of the investigation all the
more jarring. The Killing had a chance to be new, to be refreshing, to be a
unique take on an old subject. Instead, it’s falling into the same ruts as the
rest of television.

If anything a procedural like NCIS and Criminal Minds has more variations in
tone. Here, like the Seattle rain, the grim tone never lets up. The
cinematography is always lit in shadows, as if Seattle politicians can’t afford
lamps.

We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out. And the next season. As long
as The Killing veers away from the mystery – and concentrates on the real-life
impact of such a killing, the story could become unique. Right now, they're playing the same horrifying notes we've heard before.

A story about a heinous crime can make for good television – but it isn’t the
heinousness of the crime that makes it great, it’s the subsequent consequences that
follow.